The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism Church and State
Type
Book
Authors
Category
Ecclesiology
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Publication Year
1961
Publisher
Volume
89
Pages
128
Description
One of the great problems facing the Christian Church since its founding has been to define, in theory and in actuality, its relationship with the civil power.
The basis of that definition was given by Christ Himself, when He said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
But the Church-state problem has persisted through the ages, from the days of the Roman Empire to our modern democratic times. This book attempts to disentangle the main threads of the Church-state relationship and to make this relationship intelligible to the general reader.
The Church, the author writes, differs from civil society in three ways. First, it is supernatural and spiritual. Secondly, the Church's ultimate end and the means it uses to attain that end differ greatly from the ends and means of the civil power. And third, the Church was created by Christ Himself, and thus exists by divine right.
Thus, the authority of the Church is the most exalted of all authority, the author claims, and the Church cannot be looked upon as inferior to the civil power or dependent upon it.
In the concluding chapter, the author examines the changes that the Church-state problem has undergone in the modern age of the democratic state.
A hundred years ago, he declares, the Church's emphasis was on men fulfilling their duties in the state of life to which they found themselves in the highly stratified monarchical society. Today, the emphasis has changed to the importance the Church attaches to the rights and responsibilities of the individual.
Douglas Woodruff is a well-known English publisher, editor and writer. He has been chairman and managing director of Associated Catholic Newspapers since 1935 and editor of The Tablet since 1936, and has held a number of other posts in British publishing. Born in 1897, he was educated at St. Augustine's School, Ramsgate; Downside School; and New College, Oxford. He is the author of Plato's American Republic, The British Empire, Plato's Britannia, Charlemagne, Great Tudors, Talking at Random, The Tichborne Claimant and other works.
This is Volume 89 under section IX: The Church in the Modern World.
Taken from the inside flaps.
The basis of that definition was given by Christ Himself, when He said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
But the Church-state problem has persisted through the ages, from the days of the Roman Empire to our modern democratic times. This book attempts to disentangle the main threads of the Church-state relationship and to make this relationship intelligible to the general reader.
The Church, the author writes, differs from civil society in three ways. First, it is supernatural and spiritual. Secondly, the Church's ultimate end and the means it uses to attain that end differ greatly from the ends and means of the civil power. And third, the Church was created by Christ Himself, and thus exists by divine right.
Thus, the authority of the Church is the most exalted of all authority, the author claims, and the Church cannot be looked upon as inferior to the civil power or dependent upon it.
In the concluding chapter, the author examines the changes that the Church-state problem has undergone in the modern age of the democratic state.
A hundred years ago, he declares, the Church's emphasis was on men fulfilling their duties in the state of life to which they found themselves in the highly stratified monarchical society. Today, the emphasis has changed to the importance the Church attaches to the rights and responsibilities of the individual.
Douglas Woodruff is a well-known English publisher, editor and writer. He has been chairman and managing director of Associated Catholic Newspapers since 1935 and editor of The Tablet since 1936, and has held a number of other posts in British publishing. Born in 1897, he was educated at St. Augustine's School, Ramsgate; Downside School; and New College, Oxford. He is the author of Plato's American Republic, The British Empire, Plato's Britannia, Charlemagne, Great Tudors, Talking at Random, The Tichborne Claimant and other works.
This is Volume 89 under section IX: The Church in the Modern World.
Taken from the inside flaps.
Number of Copies
1
